Ministry to probe private IT business of two state officials

03.05.2012, 10:16

The justice minister has launched a probe into whether two state officials who belong to the committee deciding on public IT procurement tenders have a private interest in the matter.

The two officials in question, Janek Nozdrenko and Rome Mitt have set up a private company Minitrade that sells second-hand computers and some of the business partners of Minitrade have won public tenders.

Nozdrenko is head of the IT support service unit of RIK, the centre of public registries and information systems, while Mitt is head of RIK’s infrastructure department.

Both men are members of the public tender committee that decides which computers the state is leasing.

Marko Aavik, deputy undersecretary of the justice minister, says that the ministry is studying whether there is a conflict of interest in the activities of Nozdrenko and Mitt, but refused to comment more specific details.

“What I can say is that the situation where a member of the committee that decides on the outcome of a public tender has a private interest in a company that also participates in such tenders is unacceptable,” said Aavik.

RIK is a big player because it manages joint public tenders for large government agencies.

In most cases, the computers chosen by RIK are leased by the state.

For instance, one of the current tenders for leasing laptop computers is worth some 500,000 euros.

At the end of the leasing period the computers are returned to the leasing company.e

Pcpood.ee that is operated by Minitrade sells second-hand computers, some of which have been formerly used in the public sector.